Experience of a centre of excellence in hip fractures of the elderly in Colombia: influence of time-to-surgery on inpatient mortality and complications

To analyse the time-to-surgery of a centre of excellence in hip fractures of the elderly and its influence on inpatient mortality and postoperative complications.

A cross-sectional cohort study was conducted. The sample universe consisted of 4,364 patients admitted to a university clinic in Chía, Colombia during the year 2018 to 2023 with ICD-10 diagnoses corresponding to femur fractures. After eliminating duplicates and application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, the final sample included was 269 patients. Qualitative and quantitative variables were analysed, such as: sex, age, age group, type of fracture, type of surgical procedure, time-to-surgery, time to discharge, inpatient mortality and postoperative complications.

The mean time-to-surgery from admission was 70.16 h or 2.92 days (IQR 37–87). Patients were divided into three subgroups of time in which they were taken to surgery: <24 h (11.89%), 24–48 h (33.82%) and > 48 h (54.27%). The overall mortality rate was 1.85% for a total of five deceased patients, two of whom belonged to the 24–48-hour group and three to the > 48 h group. Higher rates of postoperative complications were observed in the > 48-hours group (n: 39, 14.49%), followed by the 24–48-hour group (n: 25, 9.29%) and the < 24-hour group (n: 7, 2.6%).

Patients operated for a hip fracture in > 48 h since admission had a slightly higher rate of postoperative complications. No significant difference was observed regarding inpatient mortality when compared to the 24–48-hour group.